#4604 Look At The Baldur's Gate On This Guy!

Summary

TBTL #4604: "Look At The Baldur's Gate On This Guy!"

Date: November 24, 2025
Hosts: Luke Burbank & Andrew Walsh

---

Episode Overview

This Monday edition of TBTL features the usual blend of sharp banter and cultural deep-dives as Luke and Andrew cover everything from retro TV theme songs and moviegoing habits, to existential gripes of aging and the seemingly Sisyphean struggle of taking out the garbage on time. The episode is defined by irreverent humor, nostalgic tangents, and thoughtful reflections—all delivered with the familiar, self-effacing wit that long-time listeners cherish.

Major topics include:

• Waiting for restaurants and battling “early onset grumpiness”
• Listener interaction—especially a unique, timestamped drop suggestion via postcard
• Deep dive into the 1980s sitcom Square Pegs (with audio samples of its theme and dialogue)
• The joys and trials of seeing movies in theaters vs streaming at home
• Reviews and reflections on new films: Noah Baumbach’s J. Kelly, Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein
• The value of going out for live shows and overcoming lethargy
• Anecdotes of neighborly and “garbage hero” behavior
• Brief TV recaps: The Chair Company, Pluribus, and proto-Curb Your Enthusiasm
• Listener mail and the ever-present challenges of pet cats interfering with podcasting

---

Key Discussion Points & Notable Moments

1. The Aging Curmudgeon Within

[00:00–01:07]

• Andrew asks about waiting for a good restaurant vs settling; banter about generational grumpiness.
• Andrew diagnoses Andy with “early onset grumpiness”:

  "You have early onset grumpiness. EOG—you’re going to begin to enjoy fewer and fewer things in your life." (Andrew, 00:31)

• Luke chimes in, parodying the classic old-man "who are these people?" complaint.

2. Cat Chaos in the Studio

[01:17–03:05]

• Luke laments “extreme circumstances” caused by Bubbles the cat, who interferes with every facet of his broadcast setup:

  “I am seriously at my limit with Bubbles, the cat...absolutely obsessed with the broadcast setup.” (Luke, 01:52)

3. Nostalgia Drop: Listener Lydia’s Postcard & Square Pegs

[05:06–13:51]

• Andrew shares delight over a fan, Lydia, sending a handwritten postcard with detailed timestamps for potential “audio drops” from the show Square Pegs.
• The segment features live investigation into the drop, much laughter, and play-by-play commentary on the old sitcom.

  “This is the first time I have ever received a drop suggestion in handwriting written down on the back of a postcard and mailed to us.” (Andy, 07:07)

• Audio from Square Pegs' “Pac Man Fever” episode is played (Sarah Jessica Parker shoutout), leading to speculation about early ‘80s pop slang and the theme song's new wave roots.

Memorable Quote

“Ladies and gentlemen, that is the drop... 'maybe we should do something to save him from becoming a human microchip.'”
— Andy, after playing the drop, 12:07

4. Deep Digression: TV Theme Songs and Cultural Artifacts

[13:09–19:32]

• The Waitresses, Paul Shaffer, and the artistic mood of the Square Pegs intro are discussed with musical samples and detailed visual description.
• Luke and Andrew compare Square Pegs' intro to more mainstream fare like Saved by the Bell or Rebecca Black's Friday.

  “It could have eased into the Waitresses a little bit more, went from spoken word to just like—you know—square peg, square peg…” (Luke, 18:05)

5. Filmgoing as an Act of Self-Care

[23:57–37:03]

• Luke recaps seeing Noah Baumbach’s J. Kelly in a packed theater; contrasts theater experience vs. at-home streaming.

  "It's nice to force ourselves to sit in a movie theater and eat popcorn and Milk Duds… sitting in that movie theater fully focused on it…was ultimately a very rewarding experience." (Luke, 36:30)

• Discussion of movie release strategies (theatrical window vs. Netflix dump) and Oscar qualification.
• Andrew recounts a Frankenstein-induced nightmare:

  “I had nightmares, Luke. Nightmares. I did that thing where I woke up in the middle of the night…and thought, ‘Oh, what was I dreaming about?’ And then I yelped.” (Andy, 26:09)

6. Going Out Still Matters: Overcoming Grumpiness

[43:15–50:25]

• Andrew’s anecdote: Dragging himself to a Sunday night comedy show hosted by “Snacks the Funny Bunny” at Rabbit Box Theater, featuring Josh Fadham (“or is it Fadem/Fatum?!”).
• The night ends up wonderful, reminding Andy and Veeves of the unrepeatable rewards of showing up.

  “It reminded me…when am I ever going to sit down to watch [a movie]? I need somebody to spring it on me, I think.” (Andy, 34:03)

7. The Unrelenting Allure—and Anxiety—of Streaming TV

[52:08–62:28]

• Andy discovers Curb Your Enthusiasm originated as a 1999 “mockumentary” HBO special:

  “Wasn’t sure if you knew this, but Curb Your Enthusiasm started as like a one-off 1999 reality TV mockumentary.” (Andy, 56:57)

• Extended discussion of TV watching paralysis, show evolutions, and how "cringe" shows like Curb and Veep lean into toxicity.
• Relief found in weekly must-see TV (namely The Chair Company and Pluribus):

  “That’s why I’m so psyched about The Chair Company…that’s a decision I don’t have to make on a Sunday night.” (Luke, 61:41)

8. Listener Voicemail: The Garbage Hero

[73:12–74:59]

• Carolyn from Vermont recounts a heroic early-morning garbage rush aided by a friendly trash collector named Mary.

  "I'm a freaking garbage hero. Give me a shirt that says ‘Garbage Hero’, boys!” (Carolyn, 74:59)

• Andrew and Luke riff on the concept of “Garbage Hero” as a potential TBTL merch idea—with a strict stance against “stolen garbage valor.”

9. Neighborhood Politics and Pet Woes

[76:02–81:42]

• Luke’s “pro move” of permanently parking his garbage bin at the pickup point and the guilt of lost-bag dog poop lead to speculation on neighborly etiquette (including pen color for apology notes).
• Brief tangent on neighbor rituals (the sacred Seahawks 12th man flag).

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Restaurant grumpiness & generational banter: 00:00–01:07
• Cat chaos/Bubbles: 01:17–03:05
• Listener Lydia’s postal drop suggestion: 05:06–13:09
• Square Pegs nostalgia & audio drops: 09:55–13:51
• Square Pegs theme deep-dive: 15:12–19:17
• Moviegoing & J. Kelly review: 23:57–37:03
• Guillermo del Toro/Frankenstein nightmare: 26:00–28:03
• Cultural value of going out: 43:15–50:25
• Streaming TV overwhelm & Curb proto-pilot: 52:08–62:28
• Listener “Garbage Hero” voicemail: 73:12–74:59
• Pet, neighbor, and dog poop etiquette: 76:02–81:42

---

Notable Quotes

• On Moviegoing:
  "Sitting in that movie theater fully focused on it…the movie is by the way, over two hours long. … I had to watch it and sit there and concentrate on it the whole time, which was ultimately a very rewarding experience."
  — Luke (36:30)

• On Square Pegs' Opening Theme:
  "I was totally expecting it to be like a theme song from Saved by the Bell… but that was so much more…artsy."
  — Luke (17:01)

• On Small Joys of Listener Engagement:
  “This is the first time I have ever received a drop suggestion in handwriting written down on the back of a postcard and mailed to us.”
  — Andy (07:07)

• On Overcoming the Urge to Stay In:
  “It reminded me…something happened to me a while back, I think, in the past couple of years. … Suddenly reality started lining up with my expectations.”
  — Andy (48:30)

• On ‘Garbage Hero’ Glory:
  "I'm a freaking garbage hero. Give me a shirt that says ‘Garbage Hero’, boys!”
  — Carolyn (74:59)

• On TV Overload:
  “I find it so difficult to pick television to watch, especially when I'm in [this mood]…Something that I can kind of turn my brain off.”
  — Andy (58:35)

---

Overall Tone & Style

Casual, self-effacing, and deeply referential to pop and subculture, the episode is rich with personal anecdotes and organic humor. The hosts lean heavily into irreverence and nostalgia, often playfully derailing discussions for comedic or reflective asides, but always circling back to the core themes of community, friendship, and appreciating the fleeting joys of everyday life.

---

For the Uninitiated

Look At The Baldur’s Gate On This Guy! stands as a microcosm of TBTL’s charm: oddly specific listener interactions, deconstructions of pop culture detritus, and candid conversations about habits, anxieties, and aging. If you crave long-form conversation that treats 1980s sitcoms and Sunday night outings with equal gravity, this is your show.

No mountain too tall…

---

End of Summary

Transcript

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, let me ask you a few questions. Let's talk about restaurants. Would you be willing to wait for a really good restaurant a half hour, or would you just eat somewhere kind of crappy? Because you could get in right away.

[Andy Burbank]

What do you think? The look on people's faces when they wait in line, it's like, is this, what are you going to eat? Or to stand quietly?

[Andrew Walsh]

Have you ever uttered the phrase, get off my lawn? No.

[Andy Burbank]

Okay. I mean, yeah, I've said, but I didn't mean like old man, like, get off my lawn. I meant more like, this is my property, so get off my lawn.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm not going to sugarcoat this for you. You have early onset grumpiness.

[Andy Burbank]

What?

[Andrew Walsh]

Early onset grumpiness. Eog you're going to begin to enjoy fewer and fewer things in your life. You'd be saying things like, who are these people?

[Luke Burbank]

Who are those people?

[Andy Burbank]

That's the. I mean, it's a real question.

[Andrew Walsh]

The only reason you leave the house is to see classic old movies. And even then you'll say it had some good parts, but all in all, it was fairly uneven.

[Andy Burbank]

Uneven?

[Andrew Walsh]

You're very young, tavioji. Your life is gonna change forever.

[Andy Burbank]

Is there anything I can do?

[Andrew Walsh]

Normally we try meds, but you're too young for them. I'm sorry. I'll notify your family.

[Andy Burbank]

Don't notify my sister. She doesn't even pick up the phone half the time. She gives people a hard time. TBTM.

[Luke Burbank]

Hey, Johnny. Oh, hi, Danny.

[Andy Burbank]

What's wrong with Mark? He's cranky. Today all, let's toss the Vol around.

[Andrew Walsh]

Are you aware that other networks refer to us as the poland of broadcasting?

[Andy Burbank]

How did these buff dudes escape my radar? I thought I knew about every single buff dude.

[Andrew Walsh]

Look at the size of that boy's head. Shh.

[Andy Burbank]

I'm not kidding.

[Luke Burbank]

It's like an orange on a toothpick. She gotta give the boy a complex.

[Andy Burbank]

Well, that's a huge noggin. Remember, boys, no points for second place.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, all right. Hello, good morning and welcome, everyone, to a Monday edition of TBT all, the show that just might be too beautiful to live like drama. You might want to put your phone away for this one. My name is Luke Burbank. I am your host. I happen to know a guy who's at his limit, coming to you from the beautiful south waterfront of Portland, Oregon, where I am seriously at my limit with bubbles, the cat who lives here at Becca's apartment and who is just absolutely obsessed with the broadcast setup here on this Monday, as we've arrived at episode 4604 in a collector series, fun begin. She's scraping the side of her face on the various corners of my laptop. And then when she's not doing that, she's walking across the keyboard of the laptop, which will be activating sounds and, or hanging up on the whole broadcast, I'm sure at some point. And then when she's not doing both of those things, she's trying to chew through the headphone cable that I need to hear the show and what's going on. So we are going to do our very best working under extreme circumstances here at episode, as I mentioned, 4,604. But I think we can do it. I saw a movie last night, so.

[Andy Burbank]

Who needs a movie?

[Luke Burbank]

At the fabulous Hollywood theater here in Portland in 35 millimeter. Been a long time since I've seen a film, a film movie that when you leave the movie house, you see those big reels turning there in the projection booth. It was the movie J. Kelly, starring George Clooney and Adam Sandler and Emily Mortimer, among others. It is a film made by Noah Baumbach about a guy in middle age who works in the entertainment business and has made a bunch of decisions throughout his life related to those jobs in the entertainment business. And some of them have created adverse family effects. And he's trying to make sense of his whole life. So in other words, I'm in a.

[Andy Burbank]

Glass case of emotion.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't think you could make a movie that was more designed to cause me to have some real deep thoughts about my life and my decisions. So we'll talk about that and if we have time, we'll talk about the latest in the world of Sky Jinx.

[Andrew Walsh]

Sky Jinx.

[Luke Burbank]

The Secretary of transportation would like the airline passengers of America to start, I don't know, being in his estimation, nicer to each other and dressing better. As far as the airline's not often just completely screwing us over. No movement on that from the Department of Transportation, but he would like us dressing a little better on the flights. We can talk about that, too, if we get to it. We'll definitely get to this guy, though. He is the longest running cobra of the show, maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. Hello. Ow are.

[Andy Burbank]

Ooh.

[Luke Burbank]

He's Andrew Walsh and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

[Andy Burbank]

Good morning, Luke. I received something that absolutely delighted me when I went to the post office late last week. I think it was after we said goodbye on Friday, you know, Luke, how people will sometimes suggest audio drops for us to use during the show. And I love that that's where a lot of our good audio comes from. But I got a whole setup here in my studio that allows me to grab tape pretty easily and in relatively high fidelity. Unfortunately, not every listener has that right. So sometimes listeners.

[Luke Burbank]

It's an oddly niche, like skill set, equipment, experience. A lot of times people will send us drops and it will be pretty clear that it's not something that they're doing on the. On the regular.

[Andy Burbank]

Yeah, and that's fine because you don't have that setup. And so usually it'll, you know, maybe somebody will actually take out their phone and record a scene on the TV and say, hey, this is from Veep Season 3. You know, this is the timecode. And they're just saying, like, maybe you can go and flag this. Or they'll flag it in different ways or, or just even just say that in an email. Like, oh, hey, I was watching this show in about the five minute mark or something. I think there was a good drop you might want to use. Sometimes they all include a link. There's various ways to get it to some. Some people actually send good high fidelity audio. But this, Luke, this was a first. Do you hear that noise I'm making? I'm letter binning it over here. I got a post.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, I see.

[Andy Burbank]

I got a postcard. Let's see here. On the front of the postcard is a beautiful photo, like a waterfront. It says it's the new Jekyll island fishing pier in Jekyll Island, Georgia. But this postcard actually comes from Tacoma from listener Lydia, looks like. And it says, hi guys, I love your show and I listen all the time. I need to.

[Luke Burbank]

Great way to start. I know any and all correspondences to the program.

[Andy Burbank]

Exactly. But then it says. But I have some points I need to make especially terrible way about Luke.

[Luke Burbank]

To transition into the body of your message.

[Andy Burbank]

How dare you? No, it says, hi guys, I love your show and listen all the time. Thanks. I love all the drops so much. Clown classic and new, but I don't know how you find them. I occasionally notice that great potential drops in the wild. And I couldn't let this one get past without alerting you. On YouTube. The 1981 high school comedy Square Pegs, episode three about 941 colon. Maybe we should do something to save him from becoming a human microchip was to me, pure gold. You may have already used it. Love, Lydia and Tacoma, Washington. Also, the next scene you are like, beyond the valley of the lame. And then a smiley face so that this is the first time I have ever received a drop suggestion in handwriting written down on the back of a postcard and mailed to us using the US Postal Service and dropped right into my PO Box. Now, as I was waiting for you to dial up, I was only able to grab one of these drops. I did not have time to grab both of them. But let's start with this.

[Luke Burbank]

An indication that the TV show Square Pegs is available on YouTube or something.

[Andy Burbank]

It is. At least episode three is. And again, Lydia did such a great job of pointing me directly to where this is.

[Luke Burbank]

And it was famously, by the way, that was the show that launched Sarah Jessica Parker's career.

[Andy Burbank]

Correct. This is stuff that I've learned in the past two or three minutes, as a matter of fact, because I'd never heard of Square Pegs before, and I was watching the beginning of this. Were you. Was this on your radar? It seems like you would have been a little bit young for a high school.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. No. Here's what I know about Square Pegs. It's where Sarah Jessica Parker started out. Like, many times when I've been, like, reading a bio of her, listening to an interview, it will be mentioned that she was on something called Square Pegs. That's as far as mine. I would believe anything you told me about the show, that it's a show about humans that are square, that are trying to fit into round holes of life. They could be robots, you know, like a small wonder style. But maybe their programming is square. I will believe anything you tell me about the program.

[Andy Burbank]

I don't know much about it other than I believe it was a teen sitcom with a laugh track. I'm looking at it here. Aired during the 8283 season, which means it might have only had one. Yeah. Looks like it only survived one season. It was on cbs. It does have Sarah Jessica Parker. And it's. Let's see here. Oh. Created by SNL writer Ann Bates. Do we know an Ann Bates B.

[Luke Burbank]

E, A, T, S? Not to my knowledge.

[Andy Burbank]

Okay, well, it just looks like it's a. I think it's just a comedy that takes place in high school. And I've isolated these drops, but now I'm wondering if that's actually even. Since you're unfamiliar with the show, maybe I should play a little bit more of the scene here. I've got it queued up now. This is from an episode called Pac Man Fever. Keep in mind, this is very early 80s. The video game console is kind of new and novel, and so it looks like maybe.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, it's not about the Cincinnati Bengals. Safety Pac Man Jones.

[Andy Burbank]

I think they address it later, I think, as a sort of a second. Like kind of a second thought, second reference. Yeah. Oh, my goodness. I'm on YouTube, and I'm just realizing now I'm getting Baldur's Gate video suggested to me. This is a new thing. This is brand new. I recognize shadow heart, though. That's growth. All right, so you have early onset Baldur's Gate. I certainly do.

[Luke Burbank]

Let me alert your family.

[Andy Burbank]

Look at the Baldur's Gate on this guy. Right? So here, let me play a little. So I think what happening here is we have some kids in the classroom, and I guess I didn't realize one of these might be Sarah Jessica Parker. I kind of can't tell from this screen grab I'm on right now, but it looks like maybe one of their friends who for some reason is in a sling, is getting too into video games. I think. I think the friends are a little bit worried. I'm gonna go back to this. Comes in around 9:40. I'm gonna start this right around 9. Oh, yeah. That is a young Sarah Jessica Parker. How cool is this? I'm working for money. Big bucks. The Guinness Book of Records.

[Guest or Minor Speaker]

Well, in that case, you can pay for the movie Friday.

[Andy Burbank]

What movie?

[Luke Burbank]

Don't you remember?

[Guest or Minor Speaker]

We were gonna go see one of Woody Allen's funny movies.

[Andy Burbank]

Oh, yeah. Well, I kind of spent my movie money this week.

[Guest or Minor Speaker]

And your lunch money and your college money.

[Andy Burbank]

He's walking very goofily for some reason. I'm thinking that maybe he's imitating a robot or something. Because he's. Maybe. Or maybe he's imitating Pac Man. He's sort of, like scuffling about, like, taking very tiny steps maybe.

[Luke Burbank]

Is he being chased by any ghosts? Cause that means it's probably Pac Man.

[Andy Burbank]

I don't see any ghosts. Well, there's some colored ghosts, like, different.

[Luke Burbank]

Does he keep ducking into little doorways in the hallway of the high school, but then emerging from other doorways, all.

[Andy Burbank]

Of the ghost just turn blue for some reason.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, that's good. He needs to turn around.

[Andy Burbank]

Okay, okay.

[Luke Burbank]

Do that fast, though.

[Andy Burbank]

Okay. All right, Sounds good. What are these, cherries?

[Guest or Minor Speaker]

Well, unless they have an asteroid scholarship.

[Andy Burbank]

I think we have a textbook case of video game abuse, and we're the.

[Guest or Minor Speaker]

Ones who helped get him hooked. Yeah, maybe we should do something to save him from becoming a human microchip.

[Andy Burbank]

There it is, ladies and gentlemen.

[Luke Burbank]

That's pretty good.

[Andy Burbank]

That is the drop. And then I couldn't. I didn't have time to find the second one in the next scene where it says something about a case of the lame Os or whatever you are, like, beyond the valley of the lame.

[Luke Burbank]

I am very interested in one deet from the Square Peg's Wikipedia page, which is that the theme music was composed. Well, for the pilot. Paul Schaeffer helped out, as in Paul Schaefer from the World's Most Dangerous Band. And the world's most Dangerous band, David Letterman, second reference today. But the theme music was composed by the Waitresses. And now the waitresses, of course, are waitresses. They are the Waitresses, the same band that did. I know what boys like. And then Christmas rapping, which we are so close to me being able to break out Christmas rapping, one of my very favorite Christmas songs. So I'm curious what the Square Peg's theme song sounded like, if it was that classic Waitresses sound or not.

[Andy Burbank]

Interesting. Well, I can roll back here to the beginning of the episode. I'm sorry I jumped in there. I thought the Waitresses was an indie band. I think I was confusing them with the Walkman for a second. When you said the Waitress, I was thinking, like, oh, early TWI pop indie band that we like, maybe.

[Luke Burbank]

No, the Waitresses are more. I know what boys like.

[Andy Burbank]

Oh, okay.

[Luke Burbank]

Boys like me. And then Christmas wrapping, you know. Oh, damn. Guess what I forgot. Da da da da da da da da da da. Christmas memory. I know for a fact you've heard Christmas wrapping, even by accident, just in wandering through a mall at Christmas in the last 30 years. It's a great song, though. It's. It's. Honestly, I think it's like, top 10 Christmas song, man.

[Andy Burbank]

You're not gonna like to hear this. I think I need to. I think I need to update a driver or something. I've noticed this not the computer I'm talking to you on, but the computer.

[Luke Burbank]

My friend, turned into a human microphone.

[Andy Burbank]

I really did. Like, I didn't. I don't even want to talk about this, but for the past, like, couple of weeks now, I realize I'll be over here talking to you. One computer's fine, but this other computer, the one that I use for all of my work and playing audio and all that stuff about, I don't know, usually a few minutes into the show, I lose Internet, and I have to, like, kind of, like, toggle my Internet off and on, and then it Starts working again. You know, not. Not the Internet itself. Just like the little. The device on my computer, like put into airplane mode and take it out. But I've been doing that almost every day now, and I was having trouble. I was panicking there. I'm glad that you went on that little background around the waitresses because I was trying to get to the beginning of this show. So Internet is back. We're good here.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay.

[Andy Burbank]

I will be looking at some driver updates. Maybe over the holiday weekend. We'll see.

[Luke Burbank]

Carol, hold his calls.

[Andy Burbank]

Yeah, I just. I don't even like to think about that. I'm not even joking. It's just if I start chasing that.

[Luke Burbank]

Thanksgiving is canceled. Your birthday is canceled. You're just going into driver download mode.

[Andy Burbank]

I keep forgetting about that. This is my birthday week. You should be nicer to me. Stop being so mean to me, Luke. You've been mean to me all show. All right, let's take a listen to the beginning of Square Pegs. This is episode three, Pac Man Fever. Very beginning on YouTube. Internet's working.

[Guest or Minor Speaker]

Listen, I've got this whole high school thing psyched out. It all breaks down into clicks. Clicks? Yeah, you know, clicks little.

[Andy Burbank]

By the way, while this is really interesting, I'm not joking. We're hearing this audio. You all might be imagining these kids talking. We're not seeing that scene. We're seeing like quasi psychedelic shots of the school. We see the outside of the school and it kind of zooms in. And now we're seeing some shots inside the school and classrooms. But they're all very lonely looking photos with like, kind of dramatic light coming in through mini blinds. We don't see any kids. They're just dropping this tape over top of these images in a way that I really am into. I'm not joking. All right, let me start this again. I'm assuming a beat is about to drop over top of this, but we'll see.

[Guest or Minor Speaker]

Listen, I've got this whole high school thing psyched out. It all breaks down into cliques. Cliques? Yeah, you know, clicks, little. In groups of different kids. All we have to do is click with the right click and we can finally have a social life that's worthy of us. No way. Not even with cleavage. I told you, this year we're gonna be popular.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah.

[Guest or Minor Speaker]

Yeah. Even if it kills us.

[Andy Burbank]

Square peg.

[Luke Burbank]

Square peg. Square square peg. Always.

[Andy Burbank]

Never.

[Luke Burbank]

Quite right. Square peg. Square peg. Square square peg.

[Andy Burbank]

I'd like it if they like us, but I don't think they like us.

[Luke Burbank]

Square peg. Square peg. Square, square peg.

[Andy Burbank]

Don't want to wear my glasses. I have to wear my glasses. Hey.

[Luke Burbank]

Square peg, square peg, square, square, hey.

[Andy Burbank]

One size does not fit all. And we're blocked in Romania.

[Luke Burbank]

That is such an edgy opening theme package. I was watching it on mute while you were playing it. And you're totally right. It's all these kind of, like, still photos that are then being, I guess you could say, slightly animated.

[Andy Burbank]

I'm glad you were watching it because I think it's really good. It's like, it's all empty classrooms. It's, like, kind of eerie, Right?

[Luke Burbank]

I was totally expecting it to be like a theme song from, you know, Saved by the Bell, which, you know, basically. I always thought that Saved by the Bell theme song was just somebody ripped off the. When you're running around first and you feel something burst diarrhea song. It's like when you wake up in the morning and you hear the alarm churning and you. Da, da da, da, da, da, da, da da. It's just like a very, like, narrating the morning of a high school student.

[Andy Burbank]

Little Rebecca Blackie.

[Luke Burbank]

There you go. It's Friday, Friday, Gotta get down on Friday. But like. But like, that was so much more like. What's the word? Artsy, with starting with just like, the VO and then I do feel like it. It could have eased into the waitresses a little bit more.

[Andy Burbank]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Went from like, spoken word to just like, you know, square peg, square peg, square peg. But overall, I really respect it. I also understand why it was only on for one season. It's not welcoming as an opening theme, but I respect it.

[Andy Burbank]

Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of the song. I mean, that's the first I've heard it. Maybe it'll grow on me. I plan on listening to it a lot later on today. But, yeah, it jumps in pretty quickly. But, I mean, it starts with cold open tape and then music. I'm just like, oh, yeah, this is exactly how I produce things. I'm actually really into that opening. And also, the images start with. You literally see the outside of the school, and then you see the inside of the school, but it's a big hallway with classic lockers on either side, but it's all empty. And you just see a janitor's bucket in the middle. And then these shots of a classroom clearly after hours, like I mentioned, with dramatic lighting. And then little by little, you start to see some sort of life come into these images as you see students sort of lining up for food in a cafeteria. But what an interesting way. Do you start by showing the school empty and dark and then fill up? It's not. Not bad, my friends.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I mean, I don't like the way that they use the word psyched out. Only because where I grew up, that was not. There was two usages. There was two ways that we would ever use psych. One would be like, I'm joking. Like, psych. That meant I'm pretending I tricked you.

[Andy Burbank]

Sort of. Exactly. You're a psych.

[Luke Burbank]

And. Yeah, like, that was the main way. And then I guess, I mean, maybe that was the only way.

[Andy Burbank]

No, psychedel. Oh, yeah, yeah, I see what you're saying. You could use it, though a verb or a noun, I think is the two ways you could say. Like, maybe verb is the wrong. I psyched you out, right? Oh, my God, I could psycho playing. I was playing basketball. Well, no, let me not go into sports terms. Especially a sport that I literally know nothing about. But, you know, I told Tony we had a substitute teacher today, and he didn't have to do his homework, but we actually have our regular teacher. I totally psyched him out.

[Luke Burbank]

Exactly. But what you. No, that works. But what we wouldn't have said where I grew up. And again, this was set in Norwalk, California, at Excelsior High School. So maybe they just had a different, you know, lexicon there, a different lingo. But when the. I might even be the Sarah Jessica Parker character says, I've got this year all psyched out.

[Andy Burbank]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

I take that to mean I've got it all figured out. And I don't think where I grew up, that's how we would have ever used the word psych in that era of the 1980s.

[Andy Burbank]

Me, too. I had never heard in that context before. I don't know if that's just weird writing on behalf of this or it's just like. It's also kind of before my time. This is 81, you know, I'm like, what, five years old or something now? And it's California talk. But I gotta say, and I'm saying this in all earnestness, what a cool damn postcard. Thank you, Lydia. I love the fact that you sent us a postcard with timestamps on it so that we could. Like, you were watching the show and then clearly, like, watching it and writing at the same time. Because then parenthetically, like, under the address says, oh, there's another good drop in the next scene. Like, you're just like, I gotta get this audio to the business boys. What's the Best way to do that. Well, where are my postcards and my pen?

[Luke Burbank]

And send a raven.

[Andy Burbank]

Yes. So that was awesome. Thank you.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, thanks for all the free content at the top of the show, Lydia, because otherwise we were gonna be stuck with me talking about this cat, Andrew. And I know that's not super compelling to sort of a cat that you can't see and the listeners can't see and the fact that it's making the broadcast hard, but like Bubbles is on one today. Like I've never seen in my whole time of knowing her in terms of climbing over the computer, climbing onto me, chewing on the cables. It's like if you. I'm wondering if maybe we had some kind of a Freaky Friday thing where a human being. Are you a human? Bubbles, are you. Is Addie trapped in there? The cat is behaving like in a movie where a human gets put into some kind of thing that we don't think of as being human. And now they're trying to alert me that they're a human inside there. Like, I understand a little bit of curiosity from this cat, but like this is a level of harassing me and bothering the broadcast. She's just currently walking across the keyboard and now she's just stepped onto my lap, which would be fine. She could sit on my lap. In fact, that would feel amazing. No, now she's climbing off of my lap onto this bar cart. Then she's going to jump from that bar cart. This is the loop she's doing back onto the table where I'm doing the show. And then she's going to. This cat Becca has now emerged from her bedroom and is. Thank you, by the way, for distracting her. It is. I've never seen. My theory, Becca, is that there's a human trapped inside of Bubbles and she's trying to let us know that she's a human being because that's the only thing that would account for this level of any harassment. Well, okay, so now luckily Becca's out and about, which means that now there'll be somebody else to distract Bubbles. So every day that I'm around this cat, Andrew, I'm more jealous of your relationship with Bingo is what it really comes down to.

[Andy Burbank]

He's a good guy. Let me.

[Luke Burbank]

He does none of this shit. He just wants to watch birds on the laptop.

[Andy Burbank]

That's not entirely true. Like while I was just talking and doing that amazing, what I assume to be award winning segment about square pegs, he did jump on my audio board at one point. And if he Just like, he would be muting stuff. I had to like, scramble and pick him up off it and put him on the shelf behind me because he. He also kind of gets in the way of the broadcast, but.

[Luke Burbank]

All right, that makes me feel all right. Bubbles. Bingo. Also does things that are distracting and not great, but man, she's. She is like, really, really, really agitated this morning. So anyway. All right, okay, That's. Now, actually that situation has. Has more or less calmed down because the bedroom door is open so she can go into the bedroom and think her thoughts now. So we should be able to get on with things. I. I saw a movie last night, this new Noah Baumbach film, J. Kelly. Have you heard anything about this?

[Andy Burbank]

No. Literally never heard anything about it.

[Luke Burbank]

It. Well, it's. It's interesting because I had. I saw like a. I think a New York Times review of it, but I didn't read the review. I just saw the headline that said it was really good. And so I. And I like Noah Baumbach, and of course I like George Clooney and Adam Sandler. So I kind of had it in my head like, oh, I'll be looking for that. And then yesterday, Becca and I were looking around for like, oh, is there a movie we'd like to see in Portland? And in fact, most of the movies were just absolute drivel. It's like a. We're in a. I think it's. Maybe we're going into the holiday movie season, which means a lot of like, quote unquote family films. So it's just a lot of.

[Andy Burbank]

There was just.

[Luke Burbank]

We went through a run of about eight films. We were like, I wouldn't see that if you paid me kind of thing. And then we're looking at the Hollywood in Portland, which is a great sort of first run movie theater that has a lot of like, they can do stuff on film too. And they just had like two screenings of this J. Kelly movie, which I'd been hearing about and which has George Clooney in it. It's like, you think this would be playing everywhere. And then what I realized was it's going on Netflix in like a week.

[Andy Burbank]

Oh, it's one of those dealios.

[Luke Burbank]

So I guess. Would you call that like a limited release? It's like, it's only for the weirdos. Like. Cause you could watch this for free or for what you're already paying Netflix in a week, or you could go sit in a movie theater and watch it right now. And that's what we did.

[Andy Burbank]

Which also has to do with awards. Right. Like, I think that Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein. Frankenstein just came. I did. I don't know if I told you this. I didn't even know about that damn movie. But I was. I was hanging out with my parents when I was in Ohio, and, you know, one night my dad was just like, hey, do you want to watch that Frankenstein movie? I'm like, I don't know what Frankenstein movie you're talking about. And then he told me that there's a new Frankenstein movie, which, again, it seems kind of similar. I think it, like, hit theaters maybe for a week, if that. And then it was mostly directly to Netflix streaming, but I was kind of like, I don't know. I don't love scary movies, but it's not really that scary. There's a little, you know, it's. It's a Frank. It's a modern Frankenstein movie movie. It's Guillermo del Toro, so there's plenty of, like, prop work and stuff. You know, there's going to be some.

[Luke Burbank]

I find that more scary. Like Pan's Labyrinth.

[Andy Burbank]

Yeah. Well, I've never seen more afraid of.

[Luke Burbank]

Guillermo del Toro's work than I am of, like, you know, I don't know, a horror auteur.

[Andy Burbank]

Well, I gotta say, I ended up, like, watching. We did. We didn't end up finishing it. I think my dad fell asleep or something. And so then I put on something else. But I figured we'd watch it. You would finish it the next night. We never did. But I had nightmares, Luke. Nightmares. I did that thing where I woke up in the middle of the night, went to use the restroom or something and thought, oh, I was dreaming about something. What was I dreaming about? And then when I remembered what I was dreaming about, I yelped. I was like, ah. It was like very upsetting. Visual body horror that would be.

[Luke Burbank]

Were you dreaming about somebody calling the monster Frankenstein?

[Andy Burbank]

I was.

[Luke Burbank]

Instead of Frankenstein's monster?

[Andy Burbank]

I did. I don't even want to.

[Luke Burbank]

That's woken me up in a cold sweat a few times.

[Andy Burbank]

This wasn't even. We'll get back to your movie in a second. I just want to say that this is. I'm going to. A little trigger warning, maybe even for you, Luke, if you want to go. Not listen to this part of the.

[Luke Burbank]

Show, but put your headphones on, Bubbles.

[Andy Burbank]

This was the least upsetting part of the dream as far as just, like, gross body stuff happening. And this is my dream, not the movie, but inspired by the movie. There was some sort of sick, like, you know, What? You're gonna hate this so much. In my dream, there was somebody who was like a butcher at, like a. At, like a serving station, like a car station, but they were carving off of a live pig that they were keeping alive artificially, like a Frankenstein.

[Luke Burbank]

They had something like that in the movie.

[Andy Burbank]

I mean, there's just a lot of, like, you know, weird bio. A lot of weird bio. Regenerating, you know, taking dead things, making them alive, keeping them alive. It actually seemed pretty good. I wouldn't mind going back and finish watching it, but, yeah, I didn't. Even as I started to describe that scene from my dream, I feel like maybe this isn't even appropriate to say out loud, but that is what happened in my head that night, Luke. And that was the worst of it.

[Luke Burbank]

That's horrifying stuff. I mean, again, I think Guillermo del Toro is undeniably a very talented filmmaker, but it's almost like he's a little too talented when it comes to some. Or, like, the people he works with. You know, his team of folks that kind of, like, create these fantastical creatures, and some of them are sort of upsettingly fantastical and things like that. Like, he's really good with that. Which is actually a reason why I would consider seeing that Frankenstein movie. I think it's also got the actor Mia Goth in it, who I really like.

[Andy Burbank]

What do you know her from? Yeah, I feel like I'm a Pearl.

[Luke Burbank]

You've seen those parts of it. And let me tell you, it's also very upsetting, that thing.

[Andy Burbank]

She seems so good. And I saw a bunch of people dressing up like her character for Halloween this year. It, like, suddenly just became a thing. And that was a trio of movies that's actually several years old now. Right. And now I'm seeing them all over the place, and I'm compelled, but I don't think I have the constitution to.

[Luke Burbank]

Watch those kinds of shows. No, I think it'll be bad. It'll be a bad dream night at Blackrock for old Andy Walsh. After watching Pearl. Just based on the parts of it I've seen, I think it's.

[Andy Burbank]

But she was good, huh?

[Luke Burbank]

I got a. I'll put it this way. Very compelling. Very, very compelling. And acting. None of the. Thankfully, there was nothing upsetting about the movie, J. Kelly. In fact, you know, it was. It was kind of. It was so interesting to me because it almost felt like it. A throwback. Like, it felt like a movie that would have been made in the 1950s or something. I was saying this To Becca, last night when we were leaving the theater, I feel like for a lot of movies these days that are, I guess you could say, essentially a drama, maybe a drama with some comedy woven in. The goal is. Unless you're talking about, like Wes Anderson, right. Or someone who's hyper stylized, who, like, makes a movie that's intentionally not naturalistic, like, that's just not what they do. I would say that most of the films, the thing that we look for in them is does it do the people, when they talk and when they're doing things, does it seem like the way people talk and are doing things in real life? Like, When Harry Met Sally is a perfect example. I feel like When Harry Met Sally, the dialogue felt so honest and motivated and it was about minutia. But at that time, we're pre Seinfeld. Nobody's talking about minutiae that way in movies. Maybe there was. I feel like we are in an era where. And I know When Harry Met Sally was a long time ago, but my point is this movie felt like it was. It was. Knew it was a film and it knew it didn't have to be extremely realistic in the way people talked and interacted at all times. And I kind of liked that. So the. The premise of the movie is George Clooney is this actor, his name is J. Kelly. He's basically George Clooney. He's a huge international movie star who is about the age that George Clooney currently is. And his agent, manager, I think, is played by Adam Sandler. He's got this whole team of people around him. He's got this kind of complicated relationship with his adult daughters because he's been gone filming movies his whole life. And also have complicated relationship with an old friend of his who was in acting school with him, played by Billy Crudup, who they both went on the same audition years and years and years previously when they're both in acting school. And it changed both of their lives for different reasons. And so anyway, throughout the movie, he ends up. It's. It felt like, you know, there's these scenes, a bunch of scenes on these trains where he's interacting with J. Kelly. The character's interacting with a whole train car of people who are fans of his, who can't believe he's on this regular ass train in France and stuff. And like, none of it felt super realistic to me, but I found it super entertaining. Like, the analogy I used last night was like, when Gene Kelly is dancing and singing in the rain, it doesn't Feel like that's a real thing someone would do. But it's really entertaining and I feel like this movie had very. And also, by the way, Noah Baumbach films I have found to also be really super intelligent, like the squid and the whale. Super well written and again, pretty realistic. Like, they don't get it. Like, here's one thing they did in this movie, J. Kelly, that I haven't seen in forever is like flashback scenes. Like, in this way, George Clooney's character will be like, somewhere he's George Clooney right now. He's 65 years old, or however old he is, and he'll be like walking through a door on a train and he'll enter into a memory and he'll just be watching it. It's real Scrooge shit going on. It's real like, you know, Ghost of Christmas Past where he's in the corner watching this thing that changed the course of his life. But he's watching it kind of, you know, from the background now, like. And that's a move that I would generally think of as kind of corny. Like, as we don't do that in movies anymore. The movies that I watch, we just don't do a lot of that kind of stuff. And they put all of it in this movie and it kind of worked for me.

[Andy Burbank]

That sounds cool. I just think it just depends on whose hands it's in, you know what I mean?

[Luke Burbank]

Kind of thing.

[Andy Burbank]

Well, that's the thing. And you know what I'm realizing here? I think you'll be surprised by this. I don't think I've ever seen a Noah Baumbach directed film. I know I've seen stuff that he's written on or produced or whatever. But, like, it's the type of thing that years and years ago, like when I first was dating Genevieve. I know that the timeline doesn't work out here, irl, but it would be those kinds of movies that I would be bringing to the relationship, it seems like, you know what I mean? Like serious. Because they tend to be kind of serious, right? Tackling kind of life issues. Dramatic, like you say. Like, Greenberg has been on my list for 20 years or however long it's been out. But, like, I never sit down to watch it because I think it's going to break my heart. And I love those kinds of movies. But it's kind of like I just know. I just like, when am I going to sit down to watch it? I need somebody to spring it on me, I think. Or maybe Have a, maybe a showing, you know, at a local theater. Sometimes they bring movies back because I don't know. But anyway, all the, all of that is to say these types of movies sound great. And they. Sounds like you're saying that these techniques could be corny or you'd think them corny, but when they're in somebody's hands, that you trust a filmmaker, like, I love that.

[Luke Burbank]

I think that's a big part of it for me is that I respect his filmmaking a lot. And so going into it, I had already sort of agreed to the terms of whatever Noah Baumbach was setting out. And so like, you know, if this is. I've never heard of the director and it's not starring George Clooney, it's a totally different movie. And the main character keeps walking through doors into full acted out memories, featuring, by the way, an actor playing a young version of him, which is always real dangerous territory, you know, Like, I would have been much more skeptical, but I think I was just like, well, I'm in good hands here with Noah Baumbach and his, you know, his sort of resume. Also you're talking about how like, you know, you never are in the mood to just like sit down and watch Greenberg and you might have to catch it when it's being replayed somewhere or, you know, being like at a movie theater where they've revived it or whatever you call that. That was the other thing that we were talking about, Becca and I leaving the movie because we're like, well, we could have watched this on Netflix in a week. And I was like, I'm so glad we went and sat in that movie theater. First of all, it was friggin packed on a Sunday night. Like that has probably something to do with the fact that it's 35 millimeter and there's a certain kind of film fan, a certain sinest, who is, you know, into that kind of stuff. And it was cool to see those like occasional little like lens flares and things kind of happening actually, you know, in the film. But. But I was just glad because it was like if. And Becca said, you know, if we would have been watching on Netflix, you got, you probably, you know, we'd have our phones out. We're probably also low key, monitoring Instagram or whatever else is. I'm checking Sunday Night Football to see if like the rams have decimated the bucks, which they did quite sadly. Like, it's nice to kind of. It was nice to force ourselves to sit in a movie theater and eat popcorn and Milk Duds, by the way, I've learned the exact number of Milk Duds I can eat safely anymore, and I think it's four.

[Andy Burbank]

Before you start coughing because of the.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't. Like, before I start removing dental work like it was. It's. Man, these old teeth, they are not up to the Milk Dud task anymore. But, like, sitting in that movie theater fully focused on it because the movie is, by the way, over two hours long. They're not every. You know. And to quote Fred Armisen from the intro, I would say parts of it were uneven, but. But, like, I was. I had to watch it and sit there and concentrate on it the whole time, which was ultimately a very rewarding experience. Whereas if I was watching it on Netflix, I might be pausing it. I might get bored and go check the Sunday Night Football score. I might be looking at my phone. I just. I kind of. I feel like my takeaway from last night is I need to commit to going to more movies in the theater, because I do think I experience it very differently than I do at home. Even though I have a. Whatever inch, gigantic screen that, you know, for all intents and purposes, should be like, I'm in a movie theater. But there's just something about being trapped with the content in a good way that I think is. Is more interesting to me.

[Andy Burbank]

Yeah. And I feel like even though there's so many stories about, like, the death of the, you know, theaters, especially kind of through the pandemic, I mean, maybe it's just me, but I've been at. I've been compelled to go to the movies so much over the past six months. I feel like there have been so many movies. I mean, obviously, one battle after another had everybody talking, but weapons had everybody talking. I just saw Begonia. I wouldn't say everybody's been talking about Begonia, but it was definitely something that we really wanted to see that's, you know, up our alley. Like, there was a time when I would just go to the movies and watch schlock, and I will still go to the movie to watch some schlock. I'm with you. That there's some stuff that it's like, no, I wouldn't watch that with your eyes. Like, no way. But, like, by the way, that's a.

[Luke Burbank]

Scene in a Guillermo del Toro movie, right?

[Andy Burbank]

Yeah, exactly. And what's his name? Yorgos Lanthimos movie as well, I believe. But I'm really hoping I got both names right there anyway. But I just feel like there's been a lot of good stuff. And again, if you want to go really far back to a couple of summers ago, just like even the Barbie.

[Luke Burbank]

In Oppenheimer, by the way, co written by Noah Baumbaugh.

[Andy Burbank]

Yes, exactly. That's why I know I've seen things. I've seen things. I think he also maybe co wrote maybe Fantastic Mr. Fox, which was.

[Luke Burbank]

He did good memory. And also Madagascar 3, Europe's most wanted, which I know that you were a.

[Andy Burbank]

Big fan of, unfamiliar with that, but. Yeah, I just feel like there's just been a lot of reasons to go to the movie theater lately. Like there's been interesting films being made that people are talking about while they're in theater.

[Luke Burbank]

I agree with you. But I also think our experience, the kind of movies that maybe we tend to go to. Well, I read one article, I don't know, a few weeks ago that said it was a shocking. It was like a shocking statistic about the box office. And it was. I think it was in the Times, of course, that's pretty much the only thing I read that and the Daily News of Longview, Washington. And it was. It was a list of all of these huge stars, including Jennifer Lawrence, who was in this, this new movie. Something like I would like to kill you or Darling Dead Love of Mine. I forget the name. They went through this list of all of these movies that had come out in the last three months, all with very kind of bankable stars in them, all of which had lost money and not just a little bit, had all just tanked. And I think if I remember right, the thrust of the article was like, like there is this layer of Hollywood film that is just going away now. And it's sort of like it's, you know, we've still. There's still plenty of interest in, you know, a Predator 5, Badlands, or like even Wicked, the new Wicked movie that came out this weekend apparently smashed all of the expectations. So, like, there are certain movies, you know, horror movies do really well and like kids movies do really well, animated movies. But there's this layer of kind of like almost like this J. Kelly movie probably, which is probably why they're doing that thing that hadn't even occurred to me that you pointed out, Andrew, which is they're throwing it in some artsy movie theaters for a couple of weeks so that it can qualify for the Academy Awards. And then they're sending it right to Netflix. Because I actually think that those. I think you and I and Veeves and Becca might be sort of going to those movies when they pass through. But a lot of those movies that aren't taking that approach, that are trying to actually, like, go, hey, we're still. We're gonna be in a theater for a long time, you know, for a typical run of a movie. According to this one article I read, they really are struggling.

[Andy Burbank]

And I don't know what the financials are here, but I couldn't. I felt like there was another Buzzy movie that I couldn't think of. So I looked up a list of number one films throughout this year so far, and I forgot Sinners was another one that was like, between Weapons and Sinners and One Battle After Another. Like, those are three movies. And again, I can't speak to whether or not made money, but they certainly, like. And again, among Buzzy. Yeah, amongst our sort of viewing class, whatever that may be, our interests, like, it was just like everybody. And also, I think that's reflected a little bit in the pop culture of Halloween and stuff, too. Like, how many people dressed up like the main character for. For. From Weapons, you know, the woman with all the makeup. I'm trying to avoid spoilers or. And I also can't remember that character's name.

[Luke Burbank]

How many of our friends who host television shows dressed up in. As Bob Ferguson from One Battle after another.

[Andy Burbank]

That was one thing. I know so many people who dressed up in that. In that outfit. That's right. I forgot that Chris did it, but I feel like my timeline. I know that some other folks I know dressed up like that fell as well. I think it was a pretty. It's a pretty achievable costume that is also in the zeitgeist. You know what I mean?

[Luke Burbank]

I didn't read the article and I should have, but I thought it was an interesting idea. I gotta. You know, I feel like we kind of roast the Seattle Times a lot on this program, mostly because they deserve it. But I think somebody in the Seattle Times went and saw one battle after another with Governor Bob Ferguson.

[Andy Burbank]

Yeah. Yeah. I didn't read it, but I saw that. Yeah, I saw that.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, the fact that they pulled that off, that they got him to go see the movie and that the, you know, Leo character's name. Bob Ferguson. And his name is Bob Ferguson. I thought I was. I give them credit for, you know, that's an ambitious stunt to get the governor of Washington to spent three hours in that movie theater with you based mostly on the fact that the character in the movie has the same name.

[Andy Burbank]

I know. Well, it was one of those things, though, where I Was like, oh, yeah, good for you. You got him to do it. But then I had absolutely no interest in what was ever in that article. Like, I didn't feel like it was going to. I don't know. Like, for some reason, I did not click on that. And even now, I'm still not all that curious about it. Hey, before we. Before this topic slips away too much, I just wanted to share two things with you related to, like, sort of this idea of, first of all, going out, going to the theater, and also something that I stumbled on late. Late last night. And these stories are somewhat related because I will say, and I don't want to say anything that would be insulting to a friend who might be listening to this, but I was excited and I wrote about in the newsletter that our friend Snacks, the funny bunny who was on the show, by the way, I looked it up. It was eight years ago, by the way, that Snacks was on the show with us. Stand up comedian Rabbit that most people know was holding another one of their comedy nights at this place appropriately called the Rabbit Box Theater. But that's kind of a coincidence. But anyway, it's this small space that I know Snacks loves and does various projects at.

[Luke Burbank]

I know the people that own that place, by the way.

[Andy Burbank]

Oh, do you? Oh, that's cool. Yeah. And so anyway, Snax was bringing the comedian Josh Faddom. Or am I saying that right? Faddom. It's not Fadem.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm not sure how to say the last name, but I know the kind of. Of.

[Andy Burbank]

I think it's fair.

[Luke Burbank]

I know the legend of Josh.

[Andy Burbank]

Yeah. And the first thing I think of is he played Liz Lemons. Like diminutive. No, manager. That was what was so funny.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, manager. That was.

[Andy Burbank]

He was. He was a talent manager, but he was like a child, Right.

[Luke Burbank]

And he would say things where I remember him from.

[Andy Burbank]

Say things like, I've seen bras anyway. And like, kind of. And he also is in Better Call Saul as one of the young camera people or one young filmmaker, like, but he's also made a whole bunch of, like, viral videos, which I didn't know about. They played a bunch of them. So basically Snacks, the funny bunny brought Josh Fatum, if I'm saying that, right? To do. To do stand up at the. This small venue in Pike Place Market. And I had on the calendar. And I was looking forward to it. But I will say I got a real case of the Sundays. Not in the. Not in the dreading Monday, but like a case of the Sundays in. I Had a pretty. It was a really, really busy day at Pop up where I volunteer because it was our big Thanksgiving meal. So it was just like tons of volunteers and tons of people showing up for food. And we had this pretty elaborate meal. It was just like a long day. And I thought that this show at the Rabbit Box Theater, which is, you know, maybe takes us a half hour to get there by bus or something. And I was like, okay, it starts at seven. And so I came home and I got showered and I was ready for it. And then Veeves and I were like, well, should we catch a bus? We'll get there pretty early if we leave now. And then I looked and I was like, oh my gosh, it doesn't start until 8. And I was really on the precipice, Luke. I was like, I don't know that I can wait until. Because if it says show starts at 8, it actually starts at 8:30, which is the case. And I know that that's kind of standard practice. You want people to come in. But I'm like, so I'm going to be going down to Pike Place Market for a show that starts at 8:30 on a Sunday when I have this huge basket of laundry to fold. I. Exhausted. I just didn't. I'd stayed up too late the night before. Like, I. I was very close to just being like, I. We. We pre bought our tickets. I was like, so we supported our friend, but maybe we can support our friend from afar. And I kind of powered through, sort of. I said, no, no, we're gonna go. But I was like, I'm gonna. This is a dangerous game. I laid down for a second. I'm like, I'm just gonna maybe read a little bit and take a little bit of a nap. But this is not me giving up. I think that if I just close my eyes for like a little bit, for like 40 minutes or something.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't love that term, but I think it's accurate.

[Andy Burbank]

And I never do that though, because if I do that, it takes me like an hour to remember my name. Like, I have trouble waking up from naps, but I would. But I was very intentional. But I'm like, I was, but I gotta admit, I was kind of grumpy. I'm like, oh, this is it. Just added an extra hour to my night. And I was already thinking about like, how usually when I go out then it takes me a long time to kind of wind down once I get home and blah, blah, blah. Luke, I had such a wonderful night and it reminded me it would be funny if all of this was to say the show sucked, Snack sucked, Josh sucked, and nobody should ever go out on Sundays. No, it was awesome. It was so, so great. And also, the last time I'd been at the Rabbit Box Theater, we had gotten there after the huge crowd was already there to see the show. And I was, like, standing in the way, way back, and it was really hot.

[Luke Burbank]

Something that Andrew's like, no.

[Andy Burbank]

I was getting constantly jostled because it was like, super crowded. But they have wait staff and I'm stand. This is not last night. This was for a different show. And by the way, this is just my own thing. But it was when I still had all of my rheumatoid arthritis was not being treated. And I was like, in that one, I remember just being like, so I also had this thing in the back of my head of like, oh, this is going to be a pretty uncomfortable kind of venue too. But no, we got there at a reasonable time. There was a table, we had great seats, sitting at the table, table service, had a couple of beers and everybody and Josh just went on. I mean, snacks was amazing. Josh did a really, really long set, like, nothing I'd seen before. And it reminded me of being in LA a little bit. Like when you're just gonna go, I don't know, go to the Largo or something like that and just see what. See what's up. And as I left and I told V, I'm like, hey, I'm sorry. I was grumpy about that. Like, absolutely. So glad we came. And it makes me want to remember that feeling. Something happened to me a while back, I think, in the past couple of years. Wait, where I always, my whole life had this feeling of, well, if I go out, it's gonna be. It's gonna be busy and I'm gonna be jostled. And I have all these reasons why I don't wanna go. And in the past couple of years, what happened is my prediction started coming true. Like, there were several shows and various things I went to where I was like, I wanna be out of here so badly. But when you have one of these, like last night, where everything just clicked perfectly and you're like, oh, this was kind of a once in a lifetime for this. A rabbit hosting a show, introducing Josh. Fate of to do that. And then they played films that he had been working on, that snacks had worked on. It was just a. An amazing night that I would not have had. And it makes me want to remember this the next time I'm looking at a ticket that says doors at 8pm or show at 8pm or whatever, you know, so, so good.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, you know, like we, we bought these tickets for. It was a 6:30 showing for the movie and we bought the tickets at like noon. And I was like, like, oh boy, this is. I don't know how 6:30pm Luke is going to be feeling, you know, particularly this time of year in the Northwest when it's already been dark for an hour and a half and like, it's deeply dark outside. Like it's like middle of the night kind of dark. So like, and again, you did a, you, you, you were on a bigger lift than I was, you know, than we were as far as like, you know, doing something that starts at 8, really, 8:30. And it's going to be, you know, pretty in a way, sort of interactive, I guess. You know, we're just going to sit and watch a movie. But even so was like, there was some part of the back of my mind that kept reminding myself I was like, okay, we bought these movie tickets. If we don't want to go, we don't have to go. Like, I was telling myself that I was like, you know, it's 28 bucks, but it's going to a good cause, the Hollywood Theater. And like, so I was trying to, like, in the back of my mind, prepare for the idea of potentially not going. And then of course, like when we walk out of the theater after seeing the show, I'm so, so glad that I went and saw that movie in the theater, even though there was a more convenient way to do it. And I think we've sort of been weirdly enough talking about this a few different times of late. Andrew, you and I, about kind of like the sort of the fact that, the fact that everything feels like it kind of sucks kind of adds to this lack of wanting to go out and engage with the world. And yet it feels to me like going out and engaging with the world, whether it's seeing a movie or going to a show or just going and grabbing dinner or, I don't know, taking a walk. It's like going out and engaging with the world almost always makes me feel better than not. And yet I feel like a lot of us have this kind of strong impulse not to right now. And so, I don't know. Here's two thumbs up from Walsh and Burbank on doing something on a Sunday night, huh?

[Andy Burbank]

Yeah. And again, the problem with me was, I think literally my whole life I'VE been like that. Like I told you, I have this bag of old voicemails that people left me on an actual physical tape back in the 90s when I was in college. And if I can ever finally play those, I will hear voicemails from people being like, andrew, leave your apartment, come out. We're down at Eurogyro or whatever, the band's about to start. People just saying, get out. I am true to that. But often in my life, when I finally would go out, I'd be like, oh, yeah, that was good. But then I really. Unfortunately, suddenly reality started lining up with my expectations.

[Luke Burbank]

You got your priors confirmed?

[Andy Burbank]

I just had a few. A few things, like, even things I love. I remember going to a spawn, kind of spontaneously going to a Belief Digable Planet show, like five years ago, like Viv's and I had the Neptune pizza. Yeah. And it was like, literally like, hey, this is around the corner. Do you just want to go? And I was like, yeah, it's kind of on the fence. Like, yeah, let's go. And then I just remember being like, I'm too old for this. I'm jammed in here. They're older than me, I think. But anyway, I was just like, I'm jammed in here. I'm hot. By the time the band played, it was like, you 10:30 or whatever it was. And I was just kind of like, this is why I don't go to shows. And I love Digable Planets, you know? And so I just unfortunately had a couple of things that reaffirmed my skepticism of going out. And so that's why last night was special. Now, while I'm holding forth, I know we gotta thank the donors. I just want to run one quick thing by you that you might already know about. By the way.

[Luke Burbank]

Don't worry, I can't see the donors names because there's a frigging cat parked fully in front of the laptop. So you may have to do the donors.

[Andy Burbank]

Okay, that's fine. Also, I don't even know if I sent them to you, so maybe I'm gatekeeping these daily donors. Today.

[Luke Burbank]

Somebody gatekeeped me once.

[Andy Burbank]

So I came home. And as I kind of predicted, though, Genevieve went to bed and I was like, I'm going to be up for a little bit here. So I watched the chair company, the latest chair company. And oddly enough, that didn't relax me. Oh, really? It didn't put me in the mood to go.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, you mean David lynch for Burbanks. That's what I've decided I'm one episode behind you. But I've just decided. I was catching up on it the other day and I was like, oh, this is just David lynch. Except it's stylized just enough for somebody like me to be able to handle it.

[Andy Burbank]

There is something Lynchian about the fades. There's such a small thing. And again, I think it's. Cause they're both takes on Neo noir in a way. And there's this Neo Noir thing where it does a crossfade that we don't see in modern TV and movies all that much anymore. Instead of like a hardcore clip from one scene to another, like they'll just like fade out of one scene and fade in the other. It's not every transition, but when it happens it feels so noiri and dark and Lynchian to me. Anyway, I watched that. It didn't put me to sleep. So I'm like, I just need to watch something that is not like a heavy lift right now. And I am. I would not have been in the mood to watch Curb youb Enthusiasm because that would have been kind of similar like cringe humor that would have gotten me too peaked. But I saw something on HBO called. It was just being suggested to me. Larry David, Curb youb Enthusiasm. I'm like, is this a look back at Curb youb Enthusiasm? What is this? It turns out, and I haven't even looked this up yet, but it's quite clear what I was watching. And I watched most of it before I eventually went to bed. I think Curb youb Enthusiasm before it was started as a regular series, I think it was a one off mockumentary that it's almost. Because this came out in 1999, this is still the 90s. Curb youb Enthusiasm, the show has not come out yet. This is like an idea that Larry David has, I think to like kind of do a bit of a mock or kind of a real documentary. You have Seinfeld in there. You have George Alexander. They're talking to the camera about Larry David, how he used to do standup before Seinfeld and some of his jokes, which I want to tell you about in a second. And. But then you definitely have Jeff Garland playing Jeff Green, right? And you have.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, okay, you have.

[Andy Burbank]

You have Madame Maha herself, you know, playing Cheryl Hines is a. Is already playing his wife. But it's clear that this was not supposed to be a series. This was just like going to be a one off hour long mockumentary with the idea being like post Seinfeld, Larry David wants to go and do standup again. And so it's almost like that documentary comedian a little bit. And speaking of Largo, you see him kind of practicing his material at Largo and it's like both. It's 1999, so it's like peak reality TV mockumentary. Like it's pretty. It almost seems like it's VHS quality at times. It's so cheap. And it's amazing how cheap and crappy all of their offices look like. Was there something in the 90s where people just didn't put anything on their walls? There was just like this. Just bare white, ugly offices. But it was interesting to see what Curb youb Enthusiasm was sort of based on. And I think it was based on this one off. And they also. I don't know if this is real or not, but they're talking about Larry David's standup when he was a young man. And assuming that this part was not made up, that these are real jokes. It was so absolutely funny. They said that. I think this is maybe Jerry talking about. He would come out and he still. He was balding a little bit as a young man.

[Luke Burbank]

Crazy hair.

[Andy Burbank]

Crazy long hair.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I've seen photos.

[Andy Burbank]

Yes. It's almost Afro ish, sort of. And he's still got these little round glasses, but it's all dark hair back then. He's a young man. Sometimes apparently he would just come out and just slowly look at the audience and just scan the audience from left to right as if you were judging them. Them. And then just put the microphone back in the stand and say nevermind and walk off stage.

[Luke Burbank]

That's a great bit.

[Andy Burbank]

And then, let me see, there's one joke I gotta tell you. I bark laughed. I think I've got it queued up here, but I don't know for sure. I didn't pull this tape. I just am playing this from HBO.

[Luke Burbank]

Episode pretty early on and George was doing.

[Andy Burbank]

Oh, that's a different one. That's. This is where George. Where Jason Alexander realizes that his George character is basically based on. Based on Larry David. I can't find the actual joke, but I'll just. I'll retell it to you. Apparently when he was doing Stand up as a young man man, he would come out looking as you and I just described him. And he'd say, I'll tell you something about good looking people were not well liked.

[Luke Burbank]

That's a great, great joke.

[Andy Burbank]

A good joke. And so I haven't finished watching this, but I wasn't sure if you knew this is this Common knowledge that Curb your Enthusiasm started as like a one off off like sort of 1999 reality TV mockumentary.

[Luke Burbank]

No, I did not know the exact origin story of it, but it would also. That would kind of track because I've been seeing weird clips of Larry David popping up in my TikTok feed. Like him playing basketball not as part of like an episode of Curb, but like almost just kind of found footage because apparently he also loves pick up basketball. And that era you're talking about where he has like he's bald on top, but he is enthusiastically growing hair on the sides and he's just like dribbling the ball product the Y in Manhattan or something. And it's like I've been seeing kind of archival Larry David stuff popping up. And so I'm wondering if maybe that whatever that is, that pilot, that proof of concept, if it's kind of having a moment again for some reason because maybe it's. I don't know if it's been re released on HBO or what I think is interesting too. And then we should get to the donors if we can. Is it sounds like you said you didn't really feel like watching Curb your Enthusiasm because you know there's a lot of tension in that show at all times. But you did feel like watching something that said Larry David colon, curb your enthusiasm. I don't understand what that colon was doing a lot of work. Like how did that seem?

[Andy Burbank]

That's what my doctor said.

[Luke Burbank]

Now that's a pretty good spoof.

[Andy Burbank]

Eat all that yellow jello.

[Luke Burbank]

It doesn't seem any less anxiety producing than the normal thing.

[Andy Burbank]

Here's the problem with me is I just like I can. I find it so difficult to pick television to watch, especially when I'm in.

[Luke Burbank]

That you're not alone.

[Andy Burbank]

I'm like, I don't want to engage with something fully here. Basically what happened was I sat down to watch the chair company had a whole basket of laundry that needed to be folded. I started folding it, but I got too sucked into the chair company. So when that ended, I looked over and I still had a lot of laundry to fold. And so that I was like, well, I need something else. And clearly something that is a little bit less engaging. Something that I can kind of turn my brain off. And HBO, to your point, was suggesting it to me. It was like suggesting it as a tile. And there was something about it being called Larry David Cole and Curb youb Enthusiasm. And the tile showed him like sitting in a chair like he was being interviewed. I thought it was some sort of new look back at it that was going to be like more.

[Luke Burbank]

Not a mockumentary commentary or something, more.

[Andy Burbank]

Like people interviewing him about his run. Since I'm pretty sure that he has now said he's done with that show, I thought it was gonna be a look back at the life of Larry David. I thought it was gonna be a real documentary. And then when I hit play, I'm like, it just felt very 90s. It felt very late 90s in a lot of ways. I'm like, this is not new. And we see a very young Jeff Garland. Garland or Garland. Garland.

[Luke Burbank]

Right, Garland.

[Andy Burbank]

Garland. And I was like, what the hell am I watching? And then I just kind of got sucked into it for. And yeah, luckily it wasn't quite as cringe. Like the. The improv that he's doing with people is a lot more. Like they just break a lot more. And it's also just like, it's. It's like it's like they made an agreement. Like, it's okay if it's not funny. It's like very unpolished.

[Luke Burbank]

He's just kind of like, you made that same agreement years ago.

[Andy Burbank]

Exactly. And I signed it, but you know what I mean? Like, it was just like it was a very raw version of the show where he hadn't already defined that genre, kind of.

[Luke Burbank]

And that totally makes sense too, that what happens is it starts there, what you're describing, and then what people respond to are the moments of high drama. And maybe drama is not even the right word, but basically the more extreme the response is, the more Susie Essman, the better, where it just becomes. It's sort of like the toxicity of the show kind of sort of ramps every season because that's what the viewers respond to. And so eventually it's just all toxic.

[Andy Burbank]

Yes. And Veep did that too, which really bummed me out. I always thought Veep was such a smart show, and it was. It was a brilliant show. But by the end, they started to amplify the characters that just swore rapid paced all the time. And like, that was always a small part of it. But it became. It just leaned on that so much that it became not an enjoyable watch for me in the last season. And yeah, Curb just gets so rough for me, like, even during the peak seasons, I think I could watch maybe two in a row before I'd have to tap out.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I don't think. I mean, maybe, you know, at its high point or whatever. Or like, I would say, like, once everyone started talking about oh, you gotta check out Curb. I probably watched a few seasons, but there definitely became a point at which it feels like, do I want to just. Do I want to spend some hours with the worst friends I've ever met?

[Andy Burbank]

Yeah, right.

[Luke Burbank]

Or, you know, and it's like, no one. I'm never. And I understand objectively that a lot of it's really fun, but it's one of those programs that, like, I'm rarely in the mood for that to, you know, laugh at the way people are treating each other in that show or whatever. I know it's not relaxing, which is why, by the way, back to that, you know, the paralysis of infinite choices with all the TV and streaming we have. That's why I'm so psyched about the Chair Company. I'm so psyched about liking it, because that's a decision I don't have to make on a Sunday night. Like, if I didn't get to watch it last night because we were watching J. Kelly, but, like, had I been home and turned on my tv, I wouldn't be like, God, what am I going to. I wouldn't. I wouldn't be tortured about the decision to watch it. Be like, oh, I'm watching the Chair Company because I'm excited because it comes out on Sunday night, and I like that.

[Andy Burbank]

Speaking of, we talked before the show. You're one behind on the Chair Company because it just dropped last night. And I'm one behind on Pluribus because it just dropped on Friday and I didn't catch up at that point.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm caught up on Pluribus.

[Andy Burbank]

So you're caught up. You've watched all four episodes or you've watched all four. There's four Pluribi now. Right. And I've only.

[Luke Burbank]

I feel comfortable saying this because I don't think he'll hear it, but I did end up having a conversation on a Saturday night with a possibly high Rick Steves about the show Pluribus. So they keep name checking him on the show.

[Andy Burbank]

Oh, that's right. Oh, yeah. I was wondering where you're going with that. I kind of forgot. That's right. She name checks him at least twice in that first episode.

[Luke Burbank]

And I texted, I think it's not. Not. Well, maybe it's in the first two, but I noticed it in the one where they. Well, wait, I want to make sure this isn't.

[Andy Burbank]

Oh, no, you're right. It's the second one not to.

[Luke Burbank]

Have you seen the one where they have you. This isn't giving anything away. Have you seen the Ice one?

[Andy Burbank]

Yeah, yeah, that was episode two. I misspoke there. Yeah, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay.

[Andy Burbank]

Yep.

[Luke Burbank]

So I just want to make sure I wasn't spoiling something. So I fired him a text that said, hey, they keep talking about you on Pluribus. You know, just kind of like, haha, that's cool. Like, you know, and then like hours go by and then it's like 9 o' clock at night on Saturday and I'm in bed and I'm getting a call from a very giggly Rick Steves who is telling me not only has he been mentioned on Pluribus, but he was a New York Times crossword puzzle answer recently. And he told me one other thing that's been going really well for him.

[Andy Burbank]

And he called you, though he's not texting you?

[Luke Burbank]

Called me?

[Andy Burbank]

Yeah. That's interesting.

[Luke Burbank]

Nine o' clock at night.

[Andy Burbank]

Love that.

[Luke Burbank]

Which is, you know, know that's a, that's a power move. I mean there's, there's a short list of people I would feel comfortable calling on a Saturday night at 9:00pm, you know, so. And maybe that's just generational or whatever, but it was really, it was very funny. We had a conversation. He was a total sweetheart. But I was also knowing his, his well documented love of cannabis, which I. That's why I don't think I'm talking out of school. And the timing and how absolutely jazzed he seems.

[Andy Burbank]

Seemed.

[Luke Burbank]

I wonder if I was getting a high dial from Rick Steve.

[Andy Burbank]

Maybe, but I want to watch, I'll try to watch episodes. We've talked a lot about television and I want to talk about Pluribus with you. Really Backs. I feel like I'm right on the fence right now and I have some thoughts about why I'm on the fence and whether or not I'm being pushed to my limit. No, I.

[Luke Burbank]

At his limit.

[Andy Burbank]

I've enjoyed it, but I realized the show is a different show than I thought it was going to be after watching the first episode. So how about I watch episode four and we.

[Luke Burbank]

And I'll watch Chair Company tonight and then we'll. Tomorrow we can just. I'd love to end two shows that our listeners may or may not have any awareness of.

[Andy Burbank]

At this point though, I feel like we can have some conversations about this with enough warning for listeners if they want to catch up, especially the Chair Company. We're one episode away from the finale or, you know, the finale will be the next episode for this season at least. So I think we've given people People some chances.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh. I was less worried about the spoilers and more worried about people not caring.

[Andy Burbank]

Oh, oh, oh. I've never let that get in my way.

[Luke Burbank]

We made a second agreement.

[Andy Burbank]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

There's two agreements that we made years ago, and that's the second one.

[Andy Burbank]

Thank you, baby.

[Luke Burbank]

All right, let's thank those donors. This show would not exist if not for folks like these. Next few names I'm going to be reading who are voluntarily supporting TBTL with a donation of cash. I was, as I so often am, was at a little TV shoot this morning here in Portland before coming back to do this, and I said, okay, I'm gonna have to step away for a couple of hours because I've got to go do this podcast. So, a podcast. How long you been doing it? How does it work? Work? And it's when I'm explaining tb, trying to. And by. There was a point where the people I was talking to at the shoot were. Had completely glazed over. But that doesn't diminish my enthusiasm here. There are these moments where I'm describing this show and its existence and how it exists, which is the donors that I'm just. I am. I remain amazed all these years later. And it's. It's all thanks to folks like Jamal Abdi, who's in Arlington, Virginia.

[Andy Burbank]

Thank you, Jamal. Appreciate you.

[Luke Burbank]

Thanks, Jamal. Appreciate you. Beautiful. Arlington, Virginia, we love it out there. Mary Donahue is in Brooklyn, New York, another place we love.

[Andy Burbank]

Yes. It reminds me that Josh Fadham or maybe Fatum played a video.

[Luke Burbank]

He never said his last name because I haven't.

[Andy Burbank]

No, he did. I forgot. I've already forgotten.

[Luke Burbank]

I've never been able to say his last name on site. But I wondered, does he open the show? He should do a bit about how no one knows how to say his name.

[Andy Burbank]

Yeah, he does. It's a very. It's. His style of comedy is not straightforward at all, by the way. But no, of course, Snacks introduced him. Like I. I heard. I just now on Monday, I forgot to double check it, and I'm back in the land of the confusion. But he did a great. In the video that he played an amazing Donahue impression. Phil Donahue, which is amazing because, like, it was so good and so well produced and such a good parody and. And like, how many people remember Phil? Like somebody doing a Phil Donahue in 2025 is just so funny to me. Just the idea that he wanted to put work into that is amazing.

[Luke Burbank]

And that this guy, Josh, last name tbd. Here's what we really need to do is we need to get Josh to donate to tbtl because there is a pronouncer. Yes, there is a pronouncer section of the intake form. And then that's the only way we'll ever know how to say his last name. He is considerably younger than us too. I get the sense.

[Andy Burbank]

No, that would. That's something that he talks about. He's 45 and he says, he goes on this whole thing. He's like, people always say you look young for your age. That's a good thing. That he has this very rat. A tat. Tat way of doing stand up that I can't imitate here. But it's very repetitive, very ADHD coded. So anyway. But yeah, he says that people are always saying how young he looks when he's 45.

[Luke Burbank]

So because Donahue is such an old pole. Donahue is like an old pole for me. I was one of those strange kids who would like. I'd go over to James DeMuth's house after school because there was. He was a latchkey kid. So it was a totally unsupervised television environment. And I would like always be hoping we could watch Donahue. He want to watch Silverhawks or some normal kid programming. But I'd be like, but Donahue's got the Chippendales on. This is. We're about to see something and it's such a. You're right. It's such a weird, like old timey now impression that like I'm probably, maybe me and you are the only target audience for a Donahue impression. But I'm just. I'm sad that I missed it.

[Andy Burbank]

It was so great. And it looks like it's not online, by the way, so I don't. So he made this film. I don't know if it just airs or he just screens it when he's on tour or what he did the.

[Luke Burbank]

Glasses and the wig and the.

[Andy Burbank]

Yes. And it was long. It went on. It was probably like a 10 minute short or something. Or maybe. Yeah, I feel like it was like a 10 minute short or something. It's how he kind of closed out a show and then played a new film, a new short film that he had made that was filmed in Seattle is Talk about Lynching. Very kind of dark and funny at the same time.

[Luke Burbank]

But was it about the TV show Bergquist?

[Andy Burbank]

No. What is that?

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, well, that's Jerome's last name. He's our next guest. Our next donor, I should say Droneberg Quist of Richfield Minnesota. Minnesota. Because Mary Donahue is what reminded you of.

[Andy Burbank]

Yes. Of the Donahue in Brooklyn, New York. Did I talk over that part?

[Luke Burbank]

No. No, you didn't.

[Andy Burbank]

We got that all in Brooklyn. Thank you so much.

[Luke Burbank]

Thank you. And thank you, Jerome, as well. So much. Thanks to Alexis Loving in Melrose, Massachusetts. Am I insane or have we had. I feel like we've got a couple people in Melrose, Massachusetts, because my brain always wants to go to, like, Melrose, California. But here's the thing. Melrose, California is not a city. It's just a neighborhood of Los Angeles, I believe. So I feel like I have this memory of seeing Melrose, thinking LA and then seeing Massachusetts.

[Andy Burbank]

But I'm looking this up because I'm not familiar with Melrose, Massachusetts. I don't think I've been there. And for a second there, I couldn't even remember if Melrose was a real place or if Melrose Place was just a place. But yeah, there's a Melrose in. In la, right?

[Luke Burbank]

Absolutely. Neighborhood that's got like. I think that Supreme Store is in Melrose. It's got a lot of, like, kind of like apparel stuff going on.

[Andy Burbank]

Yeah, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't know what they sell in Melrose, Massachusetts, but I know that Alexis Loving lives there and that makes me like Melrose, Massachusetts a whole lot. Also thanks to Jennifer Siemens, who's in San Jose, California.

[Andy Burbank]

I've been wearing my San Jose Giants hat lately. Love. I have such fond memories of my single trip to San Jose. I gotta make it back down there.

[Luke Burbank]

It's a cool place. The last time I was there, I was interviewing the guy who does a YouTube feed called Sandwiches of History, where every day, and this was, you know, game recognized game, he does this five days a week. He makes a sandwich that's from some old book or a new book, and then he tells you how to make it. And he makes it. He films and then he takes a bite and he tells you if it's good or not. Very simple concept, but very watchable. Every time he pops up on my TikTok dog feed, I'm like, I want to see how this sandwich turns out. I really like it. I really like Jennifer Siemens being in San Jose as well. Thanks, Jennifer. And then Nancy Heinrich is in Olympia, Washington. I'm going to be driving through Olympia, Washington on Wednesday and we'll see how it goes. It's going to be a apparently especially packed traffic season for the holiday traffic.

[Andy Burbank]

Because people are flying less because of all the BS in driving, I believe.

[Luke Burbank]

So that's What I heard this morning, that's what they said on Ask Jeeves, which is my nickname for Oregon Public Broadcasting. That's what they said this morning on OPB was that more people maybe than ever are driving this holiday season and it's going to be especially bad, more or less the route between where I live and where my parents live. So we'll see. My daughter's flying up from Los Angeles, I'm driving from Southern Washington. We'll see which takes longer. I think it might be the drive.

[Andy Burbank]

Here I go once again with the email. Every week I hope that it's from a female. Oh man, it's not from a female.

[Luke Burbank]

All right, emails or vmails before I roll on out of here back to my television shoot where I can try to re explain to them the funding model of tbtl, see if they'll unglaze.

[Andy Burbank]

Yes, sounds good. Yes. In addition to that sweet postcard we got from Liz, Lydia also got this voicemail in the voicemail line from Carolyn.

[Carolyn]

Hey Venus boys. This is Carolyn calling from Colchester, Vermont. It is Monday morning. I happened to wake up sometime early for me and I remembered, is it garbage day today? We returned. My wife and I returned from a trip yesterday Sunday and we weren't thinking about garbage. And I look at the calendar. It's just before 6am and indeed it is trash and recycle pickup day. And the cans aren't out. But here's the thing. Even though I was so cozy in my bed, it's dark out. Like a hero grabbed my robe, went downstairs. As I'm passing through the house, I can see through the window goes the trash truck is already coming down the road. So I turn on all the lights outside so they know I'm here. I'm opening the garage door to get out to where the cans are. The truck pulls up and the trash lady, yes, the trash lady was a woman, she comes out and I say, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, I just remembered. And she's like, oh, no problem, no problem. She's in great mood. She's smiling, big smile Monday morning, so early for me, 6am Right? Just. She came just at 6am alright. So anyway, I get the bins out for her. I say, hey, what's your name? She says, Mary. Say mary, thank you. She gives me a big smile, says, oh, no problem. She gets back in her truck, I put the bins back where they belong. Done job, Done. Done. I'm a freaking garbage hero. Give me a shirt that says garbage hero Boys. All Right.

[Luke Burbank]

Not all garbage heroes wear shirts. How out.

[Andy Burbank]

Should we get a. Should we get Carolyn a shirt that says garbage hero?

[Luke Burbank]

You know, that's actually not a bad merch idea. It really is like tv. John's gonna hear this. We're gonna have another meeting on Wednesday about garbage hero shirts. But that's actually not a bad idea for a TBTL shirt.

[Andy Burbank]

But you gotta earn it. You can't just gotta earn it by being a garbage.

[Luke Burbank]

No stealing. We don't want any stolen garbage. Valor stand for that on this.

[Andy Burbank]

We don't need any Gronks.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, yeah, right. He's always trying to become a Navy. You know what happened there?

[Andy Burbank]

I just assumed you would know what I was talking about.

[Luke Burbank]

And. But for a moment I thought, wait, do we mean Grok?

[Andy Burbank]

Right?

[Luke Burbank]

The chat GPT program. Then I was like, okay, Gronk, did he get. And I'm like, oh, yeah, he's always trying to get that Navy. Federal Credit Union.

[Andy Burbank]

That's right.

[Luke Burbank]

Insurance going and.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's right.

[Luke Burbank]

You know what move I've been on because I've been out of town so much lately is leaving my garbage can on the street, which isn't anyone's way or anything. It's. I have to wheel it up from my house up to, like, where the mailboxes are, past where the county road ends. And like, because I'm. I Sometimes I forget if I'm going to be around or not on Wednesday evening, and I don't want to risk it. I've started this, this move of late where my garbage can lives out at the pickup spot, and I take my bags of garbage to it so that I can never have a mess up where it's full of garbage and then not at the right place, if that makes sense.

[Andy Burbank]

Yeah, that's pretty good. And. And you don't have that issue of, like, people dumping garbage in your garbage? No, nobody comes down there as much.

[Luke Burbank]

Also, I, A, I don't care as much, and B, it's. There's no risk of that happening. I do feel very bad, though, about something. Something involving a garbage bag, a small plastic garbage bag of Gigi's poop, which was. I was walking her a few weeks ago when she was staying with me. It was in the morning and I was walking up my street and she decided to drop a deuce like two minutes into the walk, basically near my neighbor's yard. So I bagged up the poop, but then I tied the bag up and then I placed it carefully on the ground kind of between the street and their yard. Yard. My plan being to come back and pick it up on the way back down because we still had, you know, 20, 30 minutes of walking to do. And would you believe when we get back down to my house, I look for the bag and it's gone.

[Andy Burbank]

And this is out. This is outside somebody else's house or your own house?

[Luke Burbank]

Outside somebody else's house. My neighbor's house. So my fear is that my neighbor thought that I or someone else had just like, carelessly discarded a bag of dust dog poop kind of near their yard and was not doing anything about it, when in fact, I was just leaving it there because I didn't want to carry it all around the neighborhood for the next half hour only to bring it back to my house where I was going to toss it in my garbage can. But in the time that we were walking around the rest of the neighborhood, somebody saw the bag and picked it up and disposed of it and may be mad at me about it. And I don't know what to do about that.

[Andy Burbank]

Well, the biggest concern would be if you think it's the people whose house might have a view of that, if it were them. And it's too late now. Now I could have seen myself being troubled by that and leaving a note on their door later because it's saying, hey, if you're the person who, you know, picked up that. That bag I left there, I promise you I was coming back to pick it up. The fact that you would go back to leave a note would be proof that you care. You know what I mean? If you were to. That's probably what I would do.

[Luke Burbank]

Would you use.

[Andy Burbank]

And probably for this one, this is like another thank you slash. Sorry, I'm probably starting with pink, but I'm gonna get one of those pens with eight different colors on it that.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm trying to get all of the different pen heads out at the same time.

[Andy Burbank]

Did you notice that they're using that as a lot? Maybe they always have. And I was just noticing it this season, but I was seeing a lot of guys in the dugout using those during Mariners games. And it must have something old school.

[Luke Burbank]

Multicolor.

[Andy Burbank]

Yeah, just before the 4:1, you know, the classic one that's like shaped like a torpedo or whatever. And. And it must have to do with them. I don't think they're scoring the game. I think it was like pitching coaches and stuff. But they must be color coding their notes in a way that I really appreciate. But anyway, that's something you could have done. But it could have been a total stranger just walking by, I suppose.

[Luke Burbank]

No, it wouldn't have been a stranger. It's. There's no foot traffic down there, so it would have only been my neighbor whose house, you know, this was. And the thing is, like I said, it's like you've got the road, then you've just got some kind of un. You know, it's not even a tree lawn as you would call it, Andrew. It's just kind of of some grass. And then, then there's a fence which is like. Then past the fences into their yard, outside the fence, on the grass that was between their fence and the, and the road. Now that would be considered their property. I guess it almost might be kind of community property. Like the way that like a gully, you know, next to a road, like, like a little ditch next to a road might be kind of community property or something. But regardless, I just felt bad because.

[Andy Burbank]

They probably care for it, right? Like they mow it.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm sure they probably mow. You know, what I'll do next time I'd see them because you know, them.

[Andy Burbank]

See, that's what I wanted to see. Like I wasn't sure if there's a neighbor down the street that you'll know.

[Luke Burbank]

In theory, I'm good with. Let's think. I think, yeah, I know all. 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 6, 7. I think I know like about eight neighbors up my road. Then it gets a little hazy. Then it's some, you know, people in these big McMansions that I don't really have a chance to talk too much. But everybody in my immediate little neighborhood, I know all of them on a first name basis now, so I, I'm comfortable checking in with them. My, my one neighbor, the other guy, and I don't think this is the guy who picked up the dog poop because this is across the street from him. But he's the guy that puts out like a 12 flag and then a Seahawks flag. These are different, they're really big. And there's nothing that makes me happier than walking out of my house on a Sunday morning to do something and seeing the 12th flag Seahawk play. Then he takes them down like he treats them like the American flag.

[Andy Burbank]

Uh huh.

[Luke Burbank]

Like he folds them with reverence. It's like very respectful. They only are out there while the games are happening, but for some reason it makes me so happy.

[Andy Burbank]

Does he fly him at like half master, half staff, or half mast?

[Luke Burbank]

When I go back and forth between those two, when Sam Darnold throws four interceptions. He has to fly.

[Andy Burbank]

That would be.

[Luke Burbank]

How about when our. That would be pretty funny. That would actually be really funny. I'll suggest it next time. How about next time that the Seahawks defense decides to not wrap people up on tackles for an entire game against the Tennessee Titans. But thankfully, we did emerge with the W on that one.

[Andy Burbank]

So, yeah, I was barely watching. Barely watching that. I kind of had it on, but I was, like, doing my morning prep and stuff, so I didn't. I wasn't watching play by play, but I was kind of like, boy, they should really be. Have a.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, that was it. When I got this house, I was like, I don't even care about this game. And she's like, okay. And I was like, yeah, because they're gonna win by a bunch. And then as they slowly allowed Tennessee to stay in the game, suddenly I was much more fixated on my phone. And she's like, I thought you didn't care about the game. I was like, that's when I thought they were going to win by 40. Huh. Huh.

[Andy Burbank]

Now not. Well, never mind. Sorry, we got to wrap up the show. I was going to ask you a question about Cam Ward with the music playing. What am I doing?

[Luke Burbank]

What's your Cam Ward question?

[Andy Burbank]

Well, no, it's too big of a question for the. I was going to say a single. Aside from the Seattle Seahawks of it all, generally speaking, do you think it's kind of. Will it be interesting to watch Cam Ward sort of develop into a quarterback? Because we saw some flashes yesterday of this young quarterback kind of, like, overcoming adversity, and I was kind of like, oh, aside from him playing the team I'm rooting for, it would be kind of cool to watch him develop.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I thought he actually was pretty impressive given the circumstances. Circumstances. You know, and he's going up against a really good defense, and, you know, they're one and nine or whatever. They were one in eight. It's like a. You know, there's a. It'd be very easy to just kind of, like, shut it down. And I thought. I thought you put a team around him. He could be pretty good with my. My take on the matter, so. All right, that is going to do it for today's episode of tbtl, but we will be right back here tomorrow with more imaginary radio. In the meantime, y' all have a great Monday. Stay safe, and please remember, no mountain too tall.

[Andy Burbank]

And good luck to all. I think we have a textbook case.

[Luke Burbank]

Of video game abuse.

[Guest or Minor Speaker]

Maybe we should do something to save him from becoming a human. Microchip power out.